Amnesty International Report 1998 - Peru

(This report covers the period January-December 1997) Hundreds of prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience remained imprisoned. At least 3,000 prisoners accused of terrorism were serving sentences or awaited trial under procedures which fell short of international standards. Critics of the government and human rights defenders suffered intimidation, including armed attacks and death threats. Cases of torture were frequently reported. Prison conditions amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Four people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed. Past human rights violations affecting thousands of people remained unpunished. Armed groups continued to commit human rights abuses. The number of reported armed attacks by the clandestine Partido Comunista del Perú (Sendero Luminoso) (pcp), Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path), and Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (mrta), Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, declined for the fifth year running. However, armed attacks by the pcp increased in the second half of the year, especially in the rainforest Alto Huallaga region. The proportion of the population under a state of emergency decreased from 44 per cent in January to 22 per cent in December.   The mrta hostage crisis was brought to an end in April when President Alberto Fujimori ordered a military assault on the residence of the Japanese Ambassador in Lima, the capital (see Amnesty International Report 1997 and below). In response to the hostage crisis, in January the government suspended prison visits "of any kind" to some 400 mrta prisoners. The suspension, which remained in place for 11 weeks and effectively rendered these prisoners incommunicado, contravened international standards. Permission for the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons, suspended by the authorities in December 1996 also in response to the hostage crisis, was renewed in December. In May Congress removed from office three Constitutional Tribunal judges who declared that it would be unconstitutional for President Fujimori to stand as a presidential candidate for a third term of office. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (iachr) expressed concern that this undermined the independence and impartiality of the judiciary and the protection of human rights The mandate of the ad hoc Commission charged with recommending that the President pardon prisoners falsely accused of terrorism was extended to August 1998 (see Amnesty International Report 1996). The Commission received requests from at least 2,300 prisoners claiming that they had been falsely accused of terrorism. Since the Commission started its work, 360 of these prisoners had benefited from a presidential pardon. The government suffered a series of political crises, following revelations about human rights violations by mem-bers of the Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército (sie), Army Intelligence Service, and acts of intimidation against critics of the government (see below). The crises reflected claims that Peru was administered by an "authoritarian civilian-military government". In August new regulations designed to ease the harsh conditions faced by prisoners accused of terrorism came into force. The regulations improved family visits and extended daily exercise from 30 to 60 minutes. However, the new regulations explicitly excluded prisoners held in military prisons In September and November respectively, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Peru had violated the rights of María Elena Loayza Tamayo and Ernesto Castillo Páez, in contravention of the American Convention on Human Rights. María Elena Loayza was first acquitted by a military court in 1993 but then sentenced by a civilian court in 1994 to 20 years' imprisonment for the same terrorism-related crimes. The Court also ruled that María Elena Loayza had been tortured while in police custody. In October she was released. In the case of Ernesto Castillo Páez, who "disappeared" in 1991 (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 and 1993), the Court ruled that Peru had violated the rights to liberty, integrity and life, and the right to judicial protection for him and his family. The government continued to ignore the request made by the Court and the iachr to compensate the relatives and bring to justice those responsible for the "disappearance" of three El Frontón prisoners in June 1986 and the "disappearance" or killing of 21 peasants from Chumbivilcas in April 1990. In October provisions allowing for terrorism suspects to be tried by "faceless judges" were allowed to lapse (see Amnesty International Reports 1993 to 1997). However, legislation which undermined internationally recognized fair trial standards continued to be used (see below). In December a congressional commission received a bill which proposed making torture, "disappearances" and genocide criminal offences. Thirty-one prisoners of conscience and at least 550 possible prisoners of conscience, all accused of terrorism, remained in prison at the end of the year. For example, prisoner of conscience Marco Antonio Monge Hoyos, an agricultural worker from the hamlet of Cruz del Sur, near the city of Iquitos, Loreto department, was detained in March 1993. Despite a police inquiry concluding that Marco Antonio Monge was "not implicated in subversive activities", a provincial attorney charged him with collaboration. He had not been brought to trial by the end of the year, despite spending almost five years in prison In August former prisoner of conscience Zacarías Merma Farfán was detained again. A High Court had acquitted him of terrorism in 1995 and ordered his release, but the Supreme Court of Justice overturned the High Court ruling and ordered a retrial. Prisoners of conscience Marco Antonio Ambrosio Concha and Carlos Florentino Molero Coca, arrested in April 1992, remained in prison. Seventeen prisoners of conscience and at least 233 possible prisoners of conscience, all falsely accused of terrorism, benefited from a presidential pardon in 1997 and were released. They included prisoner of conscience Juan Alberto Huapaya Palomino, who was released in June (see Amnesty International Report 1993). However, none of the pardoned prisoners had their charges or convictions quashed, nor did they receive compensation for their arbitrary detention. Although prisoners accused of terrorism continued to be released following acquittals by special courts, at least 3,000 prisoners were serving sentences or awaited trial under procedures which fell short of international standards for fairness. For example, until October prisoners continued to be tried by "faceless judges". Thereafter, they continued to be denied a public trial and defence lawyers were prohibited from cross-examining members of the security forces involved in arrests and interrogations. A pattern of intimidation directed at critics of the government and independent human rights defenders continued. Victims suffered armed attacks, death threats, and short-term abduction. In March Patricia Valdez, a human rights activist, together with a chauffeur and bodyguard, were abducted in Lima. Armed men wearing bullet-proof vests opened fire on their car, and then drove them to another part of Lima, where they were interrogated and later released. The authorities claimed the attack was the work of common criminals but independent sources alleged that the incident was intended to intimidate opposition congressman Javier Diez Canseco, the owner of the car. Anonymous death threats were received by journalists Edmundo Cruz and César Hilderbrandt in April, human rights lawyer Heriberto Benítez Rivas in July, and the staff and director of aprodeh, an independent human rights organization, in September. Numerous cases of torture continued to be reported. In January and February sie agent Leonor La Rosa Bustamante, suspected of leaking security plans to the press, was tortured in the basement of a military installation in Lima, a place where she claimed alleged members of the armed opposition were also tortured. Leonor La Rosa was subsequently diagnosed as having suffered a serious spinal injury. Four sie officers accused of torturing her were each found guilty by a military court of "abuse of authority" and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. In March the dismembered body of Mariela Lucy Barreto Riofano, another sie agent, was found in plastic bags on the outskirts of Lima. Her death and the torture of Leonor La Rosa were widely believed to have been connected. During a single counter-insurgency operation spanning February and March in the Alto Yurinaki region, province of Chanchamayo, Junín department, the army claimed to have captured 38 members of an mrta unit and an unspecified number of "subversives" who had infiltrated a nearby army base. The Ministry of Defence stated that the army had respected the detainees' human rights. However, many of the detainees testified that they had been beaten, repeatedly immersed in a water-tank, and subjected to electric shocks. Inés Marilú Avila Gálvez, one of the detainees, claimed that two officers attempted to rape her. All those detained and transferred into police custody were subsequently released without charge. However, Jorge Quispe Montalván, one of those detained, was shot dead by soldiers in circumstances suggesting that he had been extrajudicially executed. A complaint was filed before the Public Ministry about these allegations of torture and extrajudicial execution, but by the end of the year those responsible had not been brought to justice. Prison conditions were reported to be harsh, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The conditions endured by prisoners accused of terrorism were especially harsh in the maximum security Yanamayo Prison, near the city of Puno, and in the prison in the Callao Naval Base, near Lima, where a handful of mrta and pcp leaders have been held since 1992 in underground cells Amnesty International and other human rights organizations expressed concern about the adverse effects on the health of prisoners, should they be transferred to the newly constructed Challapalca Prison in the Andean highlands. The authorities claimed that Challapalca Prison was between 4,600 and 5,000 metres above sea level. According to medical opinion, holding prisoners at an altitude in excess of 4,500 metres for prolonged periods of time could lead to serious illness or even death. Despite an appeal by Peru's Ombudsman's Office for the prison authorities to review the decision to bring Challapalca Prison into operation, 51 prisoners accused of common crimes were transferred there in August The authorities continued to disregard the recommendation made in 1996 by the UN Human Rights Committee to repeal amnesty laws passed in 1995 which legally sanctioned impunity (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 and 1997). Thousands of human rights violations committed between 1980 and 1995, including cases of torture, "disappearance" and extrajudicial execution, thus remained unpunished, as did most human rights violations committed after the 1995 amnesty laws were passed. An exception to this pattern of impunity was the eight-year prison sentence imposed by the Supreme Court of Justice on a non-commissioned army officer for the homicide of Víctor Ramírez Arias in 1994 (see Amnesty International Report 1995) The armed opposition continued to commit abuses. Seventy-two of the 81 hostages held by the mrta in the Japanese Ambassador's residence remained captive until April; nine were released in January and February (see Amnesty International Report 1997). On 22 April an armed assault by the security forces ended the 126-day hostage crisis with the rescue of 71 of the hostages. One hostage, two members of the security forces and all 14 mrta hostage-takers died. There were allegations that possibly three of the mrta hostage-takers had been extrajudicially executed. In August members of the pcp were reported to have taken hostage 29 workers based at a remote oil exploration plant in the department of Junín. The hostages, who were threatened with death, were released after two days in exchange for livestock and equipment. In September and October members of the pcp were reported to have deliberately and arbitrarily killed some 20 villagers and local officials whom they took captive in Los Milagros, Mohena, and other hamlets near the river Alto Huallaga, Huánuco department. The victims were accused of being army informers. Amnesty International repeatedly appealed to the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience. In April an Amnesty International delegation visited Peru. At the end of the visit the delegation expressed concern about allegations that critics of President Fujimori's administration suffered intimidation, including armed attacks and death threats, and concluded that the protection of human rights in Peru was in jeopardy. The delegation publicly appealed to the authorities to have the allegations investigated and bring those responsible to justice In March Amnesty International published Peru: Women's human rights – in memory of María Elena Moyano. The report outlined the organization's concerns about abuses of women's human rights and recalled the deliberate and arbitrary killing by the pcp of María Elena Moyano and other women activists (see Amnesty International Reports 1993 and 1997). The report called on the authorities and the armed opposition to respect international human rights and humanitarian standards. In August the organization published Peru: Prisoners of conscience – every day in prison is one day too many, which expressed concern about the prolonged imprisonment of hundreds of prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience. In February and March Amnesty International repeated calls on the mrta to immediately and unconditionally release the remaining 72 hostages. In June the organization wrote to President Fujimori requesting a full and independent investigation into the deaths of all 17 people killed at the end of the mrta crisis. However, no such investigation would appear to have been ordered. In August, and again in October, the organization reiterated previous appeals to repeal those elements of the anti-terrorism legislation which undermined the right to a fair trial.